Wichita eagle., 1887-01-19
PICTURE OF THE CAR.
AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE LIFE
WHICH HE LEADS.

How the Autocrat is Obliged to Travel.
A Monarch with Many Flatterers but
no Friends-Living in a Nightmare of
Terror.
Ny friend the messenger was on his way
to So. Petersburg in the autumn of last
year, when his train stopped at 4 small
Russian way station and was shuntad OF
upon a side track The station yard was
filed with soldiers, filing OF into lines
along the main track
The messenger let down his window and
put out his head to discover the cause of the
delay A soldier said something to him in
Russian, then pointed his gun at his head.
4 travelling companion pulled the messen-
ger back, saying: You don't understand
Russian. eh2 That man told you that if you
didn { shut the window and pull down the
curtain he would blow your brains out. "
Naturally the window came up and the
curtain came down. The sat thus in the
darkened compartment for quarter of an
hour Then. with a proiigious rattle and
roar, there flashed by them on the main
track a short express train. Twenty min
utes more another rushed past in the same
direction Then. after some minutes the
soldier shouted TO them that they might lift
tie ind and they resumed their journey.
I-3e--ry revealed that the car had passed
= = on his way to the Si1ierniwice meet
ia. and ths4t those precautions were ordered
Il cloEE t&e line 20 one knew which Of
the trains bore him.
\ PICTURE OF THE CAR
The car himself seems TO have many fat
+erafs bus no friends. | haze talked
dareSa-, ct one time or another, with a
score OF people who have met him and are
fairly qualified to judge what manner Of
man he is. Almost invariably he is de-
scribcd as big. burly, bcarish sort Of man,
strangely unlike any of his more recent
ancestors on either side, and with face Of
a curious TeutOn-Tartar type. picturesque
but unpleasant. He has vast physical
strength. of the blacksmith sort and has
the kind OF mind which not infrequentiy
goes with that order of boty-sloW, honest,
obstinate, confding where faith is reposed,
SUSPICIOUS everywhere else. In a way
George III must have been Of the same
nature He was, with Louis XVI rather
contemptuoUsly celebrated by his contem-
porary critics as one of the two faithful
husbands among the sovereigns of Europe.
Good husbands seem to make bad kings
The present czar IS said 10 be Z most de-
voted and single minded spouse-the first
Of his race. Ee is par excellence Il family
man, to whom the highest happiness would
be the home circle, if he were allowed to
have home. His tastes arc simple; he
eats ptairlly and heavily; before the burden
OF empire came uPon him he used to be
great SLEEPER, q mighty hunter, a bluff
friend Of the few he liked a hater OF for
nlalities. diplomacy. and politics generally
in short, g good, wholesome, rough plebe-
ian prince, stupid and chcler;c bat honest
and true Fate never played on mortal
cruclcr trick than when she suddenly
hurled upon this man the load of czarship.
To be absolute master OF over 100 600, Geo
of human beings is in itself a task of incon-
ceivable magnitude. When, further, the
task IS complicated by organized robbery
among officials and organized murder
among subjects, by continual necessity of
provoking war by aggression abroad and
ceaseleSs terror of assassination at home
it becomes simply impossible.